HOST: Now lots of remodelers are interested in green building. You took it one step further now. It's my understanding you took an old farmhouse and made it a net-zero-energy home. Tell us a little bit about that process.
REP: I'd be happy to, Scott. One of the things we have had a lot of pleasure in doing is pushing the envelope in green building and in green remodeling. (HOST: Right.) We have a wide-open playing field--a hundred-and-twenty-three million homes in America that exist. And the focus heretofore has been on building new homes one-at-a-time. Yet, this massive inventory of homes remains maybe a little less effective in its operation, durability, and comfort than it could be. So we took an old farmhouse--in this case it was from Eighteen-Sixty--not only gut-rehabbed it, but took it to the front-edge of our industry's technology. Home's work is a system. (HOST: Right.) And pulling all of the pieces of consumption, generation, affordability, comfort together into one project gave us an interesting mission, at the completion of which we did complete the nation's first zero-energy remodel.
HOST: That's awesome. I love old construction and the old farmhouses. Were you able--I mean in this project--to keep the style and exterior and all the charm of that farmhouse?
REP: Better yet. We were able to keep the charm and enhance performance. We turned the farmhouse into a bed-and-breakfast that's currently operating as the Raritan Inn, a five-bedroom bed-and-breakfast in Califon, New Jersey. We have a web presence, RaritanInn dot com. And the public can come and visit. We run lots of tours for school groups, community groups, the Green Building Conference -- chapters have come through. And it acts not only as a bed-and-breakfast, but as an outreach for the green movement and for the opportunity to show those who would aspire to have pieces of this that it can be done in an existing shell.
HOST: Uh, are you -- You're talking about a green movement -- Do you get a lot of requests from homeowners that they want green remodeling, per say?
REP: No question about it. There is a growing energy to minimize consumption of fossil fuels. And quite frankly, in this economic environment to minimize consumption of energy that's energy-related will cost you money. Lowering operating expenses is a great way for all of your viewers to try to get back into balance. Consumption spending--or if you lower consumption, inherently, spending will drop. So rather than work a little harder, make another two-hundred dollars a month, lower consumption.
There's lots of easier ways for all of the viewers to achieve that. And I see it in three buckets. Number one is consumer behavior. Get everyone to fill the dishwasher, load the dryer properly, make sure filters and lint is clean. (HOST: Yeah, the little things.) Little things -- lots of them. When you use the air-conditioning, does it have to be nine months a year? Can you do it for three months a year? Consumer behavior--number-one benefit in a house for lowering consumption. Two, weatherization--which is insulation, storm windows, storm doors, caulk setbacks, thermostats -- very simple things. And number three gets to the high-tech bucket. And it's very intriguing to look at windtowers, solar panels, solar hotwater, geothermal systems -- And we've done all that. (HOST: Right.) But I don't take my customers there until we get through those first two levels. It makes no sense to bring in high technology and squander it.
So number one--consumer behavior; two--weatherization and minimizing consumption; three--is get to that platform of new technologies. And I think it adds a reasonable attractiveness to everyone who owns a home that they can go get something off the shelf--and it might be as simple as compact fluorescent bulbs (HOST: Right.) tonight. Right now, go buy some, put them in, (HOST: And lower consumption.) throw away the old ones. It does make sense economically. Throw them away. Put in new ones. Now, you're green.
HOST: That's right. Now, Joe Schmo remodeler -- that's interesting. I want to be a green remodeler. What advice do you give?
REP: There's a couple of things. There's lots of good data out there. There is not a singular, linear path to being a linear remodeler. (HOST: Right.) Lots of ways to get there. And as an industry, we maybe haven't done a good job yet defining what green is.
HOST: I agree. I agree.
REP: So an attractive approach: number one, start to mastery some of the competencies that are acquired. Number on is understanding what green products are out there, what green systems mean, how a building operates as a system--and it does -- Air coming in, pressure zones -- (HOST: Right.) -- There's a lot of science there. A wonderful opportunity is through PATH--the Partnership for Advancing Technologies. They have a great website: PATHNET dot org, and Toolbase dot com. Both are out there, funded through the research center and the Department of Energy has some help, as well. Get some information. Number two, ramp up your skills.
There is a group called BPI, the Building Performance Institute. (HOST: Okay.) And they are readily accessible at BPI dot org. They will help an individual remodeler acquire skills to test pre- and post-test. See what the house looks like. How does it operate? Do your thing--weatherization, duct-sealing, uh band-joist insulation. And then, test again on the backside. Did you make a difference in that home? So I would look to BPI as a certification opportunity to ramp up those skills.
HOST: It's perfect. It's like green building. There's so much information out there. It's really just going out there and getting your hands on it and slowly get involved in it, and it'll come naturally after awhile.
REP: Indeed it will. And a fascinating sidebar to this is understanding how the consumers, all of your viewers, look at making the decision. I used to think that decisions were bouillon--black/white, yes/no, on/off -- That is not the case. Decision-making is a little bit of a fuzzy-logic process. And how do you define the drivers, the criteria on the frontend. Scott, we just had a customer spend ninety-five-hundred dollars for a solar hotwater system. It -- It doesn't have a payback in this century. However, they wanted it to minimize fossil-fuel consumption. (HOST: Right.) That's their driver. It is not to you, I, or any of the manufacturers who support our outreach to say that's the wrong reason. If they want it, they should have it.
And I think that the viewers can discern that it is not only first cost, nor operating cost, but include those fuzzy-decision criteria--global responsibility, you know, peer pressure, comfort in a home--those are valid criteria. So I'm looking at ROI--return-on-investment--only as certainly a gauge on whether you buy green or not buy green, but there are other criteria and a sharp awareness of what drives the consumer into a buying proposition is a good way for not only field practitioners like myself or yourself, but the manufacturers to understand we can all play a role in fulfilling that demand.
HOST: That's awesome. [END]
| 
